I wonder if any of the scouts are obliged to ignore any creative midfielders that come across their path. It's like we're on a mission to be the only side in the league without someone who likes to put their foot on the ball and play incisive forward passes...and then maybe move to get a return ball. Martinez, Koeman and Allardyce so far haven't seen that we needed one. Which is exactly what we do need.

Plus it’s more than just the passes it’s a player who can hold onto the ball when under pressure.

Too many players have no awareness of what’s around them, lack the skill to do it, or don’t want to do it.

Just playing it away first time, unless it’s to a man in space who can be progressive, doesn’t achieve anything it just passes the pressure into the recipient.

Sometimes you have to be able to roll the opponent or send him the wrong way with a body swerve etc.

Someone who can pass through the back line, over the back line, behind the back line...we haven’t got anyone who can create chances from open play except from out wide.

Closest would be Rooney or Sigurdsson. Rooney playing deep or should be, and sig’s lack of open play chance creation (and even just involvement at times) was widely covered on here at the start of the season and his strength is dead balls into the box.

Not like strictly a number ten, but someone who can pass up the pitch accurately with good vision and is naturally inclined to do so.

One thing is - we’re so deep 90% of the time now that even if we did have someone who can unpick the lock then they’d have to have a pretty fucking long pick.

Yeah as you say even Sigurdsson is more of a “finisher” in terms of either shooting or the final cross etc.

Rooney is just and all round good player but not a natural knitter of the play but is probably the closest that we have.

Tell you what I’m not looking forward to the other lot getting that Keita. Haven’t seen that much of him but he looks to me in the Pogba / De Bruyne / Toure mould (and Barkley to an extent) a dynamic ball carrier who is a really aggressive forward passer as well. Can’t be arsed with them next year.

Not sure who we could get to furfil that role. Lanzini but is a classic 10 and he’d be apparently quite expensive. Mahrez would be ideal for me, off the left dribbling in. £50m would bite your hand off.

One thing that would seem to me to be reasonably easy to improve is to make Gueye / McCarthy realise that they’re actually ok dribbling the ball forward.

They’re not going to become passers at this stage but they should learn / be taught that they can still help get the ball up the other end by carrying it into gaps that appear.

One of the forward players would need to make themselves available for a short pass when they get there but it’d at least be some attempt at makin what we have more effective.